Med 1 Ella

COLEGIO DE DAGUPAN
Institute of Graduate Studies

Arellano St. Dagupan City
______________________________________________________________________________
Name: DANIEL R. DUMO
Adviser: DELIA H. PATALUD Course: MED 01
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLES AND TEACHER MORALE
INTRODUCTION
Educational leaders are tasked with a multitude of responsibilities on a daily basis. In

addition to routine administrative duties including ongoing observations, addressing parental and
teacher concerns, handling discipline issues, and the like, effective school leaders recognize their
leadership style has a direct correlation with their school’s culture and climate. Additionally, much
research has demonstrated that the morale among the teachers, faculty, and staff members of a
school is impacted by leadership style. Heightened morale is beneficial to teachers, administrators,
and students alike, it is imperative for administrators to remain well informed regarding which
leadership styles and behaviors are most effective in boosting and maintaining healthy levels of
morale within their schools. Leadership behaviors can be organized by practice including:
modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act and
encouraging the heart. Bentley and Rempel asserted that in addition to leadership styles, other
aspects influence teacher morale. Morale is also impacted by these factors: teacher rapport with
the principal, satisfaction with teaching, rapport among teachers, teacher salary, teacher workload,
curriculum issues, teacher status, community support, school facilities, and community pressures.
As school leaders are unable to control many of the aspects named by Bentley and Rempel, it is
essential for administrators to be knowledgeable concerning how their leadership impacts morale.
BODY
The purpose of this study was to develop a theory regarding which leadership
characteristics, traits, and additional factors current educators identified as contributions or
hindrances to teacher morale. Willing participants included administrators, teachers, and
paraprofessionals from a small school district in the southeastern United States. The school district
utilized for this study was a K-8 school system serving approximately 3,850 students. There were
eight schools within the district, including four elementary schools, an intermediate school, a
middle school and a K-8 school. In order to ensure absolute anonymity,
pseudonyms were used for each of the eight schools. Initially, the researcher planned on attending
a faculty meeting at each of the eight schools to explain the nature of this study and its significance
to all teachers and paraprofessionals; however, due to scheduling conflicts and time constraints,
attending a meeting at all eight campuses was not feasible. Therefore, the researcher drafted an
email and sent it to each of the principals within the district. Principals were asked to forward the
email to all teachers and paraprofessionals, and all eight of the administrators assured the
researcher they would honor this request. Teachers and paraprofessionals who were willing to
participate in this research project were asked to complete consent forms and then complete either
one or both of two inventories entitled the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire and the Leadership
Practices Inventory. Copies of the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) were made available to all
teachers and paraprofessionals at each of the campuses, and the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire was
sent to willing participants via Google Forms. Upon completion of the LPI, participants were asked
to place their inventories in an envelope for the researcher to collect after a two-week period. Data
from the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire was collected digitally for two weeks as well.
CONCLUSION
In order to encourage a larger number of participants, if possible, a personal meeting with
all potential participants for future studies. Additionally, the level of participation would likely
vary significantly in a school district of a different size; therefore, for further research, the
researcher recommended including additional school districts and/or more schools. For further
research and in regards to satisfaction with teaching, the researcher deemed it appropriate and
beneficial to determine the positions of participants. The researcher theorized those individuals
who teach subjects in which state testing is mandated, may be the participants who reported they
were less satisfied with teaching; thus, it would have been beneficial to know the positions of
individual participants. Additionally, as this research took place in a small school district where
only K-8 schools were represented, the levels of satisfaction with teaching may vary significantly
if 9-12 schools were included in the study. For further studies similar to this one, the researcher
also recommended including educators who teach grades 9-12.
REFERENCES:
 Anrig, G. (2015). How we know collaboration works. Educational Leadership, 72(5), 30
35.
 Ary, D., Jacobs, L., Sorensen, C., & Walker, D. (2014). Introduction to research in
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 Atlasti Qualitative Data Analysis (2016). Qualitative research - definition, examples &
design. Retrieved from http://atlasti.com/qualitative-research/
 Behrstock-Sherratt, E., & Rizzolo, A. (2014). Everyone at the table. Retrieved from
 http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational leadership/feb14/vol71/num05/Everyone-
at-the-Table.aspx
 Bentley, R., & Rempel, A. (1980). The Purdue teacher opinionaire. West Lafayette, IN:
Purdue Research Foundation.
 The Bible: New International Version. (1984). Colorado Springs, CO: International Bible
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 Catapano, J. (2017). Relationship building with teacher colleagues. Retrieved from
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 Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative
analysis. London, UK: Sage.

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COLEGIO DE DAGUPAN

Institute of Graduate Studies

Name: DANIEL R. DUMO

Adviser: DELIA H. PATALUD Course: MED 01

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLES AND TEACHER MORALE

Educational leaders are tasked with a multitude of responsibilities on a daily basis. In

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